WARNING: RANTING COMPUTER NUT...

From: Vassilis Prevelakis <vp_at_cs.drexel.edu>
Date: Tue Jun 15 18:21:45 2004

"David V. Corbin" <dvcorbin_at_optonline.net> wrote:
> As shown by the above quote, there is a strong anti "PeeCee" bias by many
> here.[...]
but this forum centers on variance, if everything is the same, what is the
point of discussing/preserving it.

The differences/peculiarities/innovations exhibited by many of the old
machines make them so fascinating. If you give me a 20 year old PC,
it will take me no time to setup it up with DOS and even networking.
But what would be the point, I can do the same thing in a VMware
window on my Linux workstation.

The neat thing about the old machines is that it takes for ever to set
them up and this is what's so intriguing about them. I remember a
posting (not in this forum), about a guy who got an old IBM 360
mainframe working. He said that once it was working there wasn't much
to do with it.

> IF the computer industry had remained with a large number of completely
> different hardware/software environments which required trained operators
> for even the most basic operations, then computing would not have become a
> household commodity.
> [...]
> Standardization of both hardware and software HAD TO HAPPEN, if computers
> were to become the commodity they are today.

I am afraid that computing standardised too early causing everybody to
get locked into a technology that is too clunky. Microsoft's "innovation"
essentially boils down to two things:

a) adding useless junk to their already bloated platforms, and
b) adding "essential" applications (e.g. Web, or audio) to their
   base platform so as to dictate the standards and eliminate
   competition.

This strategy, although excellent for Microsoft, is to the detriment of
everybody else.

I have PCs running windows because I must, but I don't need the latest
and greatest Microsoft offering, I am running Windows NT4.0 with Office
95 (which btw will soon be covered by the 10 year boundary :-). I will
soon have to move to something more recent mainly because vendors do
not support Windows NT, so I will not have the drivers to run Windows
NT on my new hardware. PC hardware *is* a commodity, but never be fooled
into thinking that Windows software is also a commodity.

**vp
Received on Tue Jun 15 2004 - 18:21:45 BST